On 6th February 2018, celebrations were held across Britain to commemorate the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women the right to vote for the first time. Whilst this was pivotal for women’s suffrage, it was also an important milestone for men’s suffrage. Prior to the Act, property qualifications … Read more
When the teenage Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, only about one in five men over 21 had the vote – those who owned a certain amount of property – and, ironically in view of the sex of the monarch, no women at all. That denied the vote to most working people – … Read more
His principles were not kept in the pocket of a Sunday coat (I don’t know that he always had a Sunday change of any sort); but were to him the daily light which led his steps. W. J. Linton, ‘Who were the Chartists?’, The Century, Apr. 1882. Today the news is at our fingertips, we … Read more
In the middle of the West Oxfordshire countryside, on the outskirts of the village of Minster Lovell, there are a series of bungalows on regular plots of land. The Ordnance Survey map refers to these dwellings as the Charterville Allotments. The name alludes to a surprising past, a connection to one of the largest … Read more
